A naukri.com initiative
Nasa
5d
105
Image Credit: Nasa
Lab Work Digs Into Gullies Seen on Giant Asteroid Vesta by NASA’s Dawn
- NASA-funded scientists used lab equipment to mimic conditions on Vesta, which is a giant asteroid, to explain the origins of deep channels or gullies on its surface.
- Hypothesis holds that gullies are formed due to dry debris flows after meteoroid impacts.
- The recent study provided evidence that gullies on Vesta are formed due to sudden and brief flows of water that carved gullies and deposited fans of sediment after an impact on the asteroid.
- The scientists used a test chamber at JPL called DUSTIE to recreate Vesta-like conditions that will occur after a meteoroid impact.
- The team experimented with brines which are a little over an inch deep and the gullies on Vesta that are about yards to tens of yards deep thus needing a longer time to refreeze than the liquids experimented with.
- Pure water froze almost instantly, while briny liquids stayed free for at least an hour due to the presence of table salt.
- The researchers were also able to recreate the lids of frozen material on brines that formed after flow of liquids.
- The lids stabilize the liquid beneath them, protecting it from being exposed to the vacuum of space and help to make the liquids flow longer before freezing again.
- Dawn spacecraft traveled to the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, to orbit Vesta for 14 months and Ceres for almost four years.
- Recent research offers insights into processes on Ceres but focuses on Vesta, where ice and salts may produce briny liquid when heated by an impact.
Read Full Article
6 Likes
For uninterrupted reading, download the app